Matt Tuckey is a writer from Oldham, England. He covers celebrities, night life, Manchester, fitness, creative writing, social media, psychology and events. Some of this may, in some way, help others. Or maybe it'll just entertain you for a while.
2 weeks away from my sister’s wedding and the weight is just not coming off, no matter how much bland soup I make and begrudgingly eat. So I’m hammering through this remaining veg, and then fasting. The suit fits me as it is, so that’s a start. If I succeed, it’ll be a bit big. Hugely failing this Wedding Fit challenge.
Fittingly, the next meetup is in a venue with no alcohol and healthy vegan food. Hinterland bar hosts the Summer Solstice Rave, featuring ‘matcha, coffee and vibes.’ Come join Manchester Nightlife for some daytime partying. The only downside: it starts at 9am on a Sunday. So no Saturday night out.
Last night I went to new Irish bar Katie O’Brien’s on Peter St with the Manchester Nightlife Meetup group. Some new, some regulars.
Went for food first with a mate. Were queues everywhere except Rudy’s Pizza on Peter St.
Met the meetup group in Dirty Martini. Mixed group. Guys, girls, new, regular.
Went over to Katie O’Brien’s. The Irish bar opened a few weeks ago in the old Peaky Blinders unit with live music, traditional décor and heaving with people. Absolutely roasting upstairs. I couldn’t stay long. The heat was killing me. Surprisingly, we all got in even with members wearing trainers and baseball caps.
From Rukmini Iyer’s India Express cookbook: Chilli and Cheese Stuffed Parathas.
Parathas are small Indian flatbreads, traditionally with whole wheat dough. I think I did use strong brown flour. These balls of dough are flattened and shallow fried in oil for a crispy, spicy filling finish. It took me about an hour and 20 in total, with a 30 min resting period for the dough.
I found I ran out of certain ingredients meaning there were some leftover content that I couldn’t include in the recipe.
But the finished chapatis were really enjoyable. Would have been good with something else, a curry of sorts. Something more fluid. I wasn’t that organised, though.
I booked today off to write up a Comic Con that I actually ended up not going to. The guests were interesting but not really my thing this time.
But this has meant I can get on with other things. Including this one, I have 3 blog posts to write. Also, expect a recipe review on the blog this Saturday.
But what’s happening in the city? Saturday night: new bar Katie O’Brien’s has opened and is already hugely popular. Manchester Nightlife are headed there Saturday night, first starting on the corner of Peter St in Dirty Martini.
New Meetup group Manchester Whisky Tasting Events opens with a tasting event on the 13th. I’m dieting for an upcoming wedding, but I’ll be all over some whisky tasting after that, depending on their events. I’m a big single malt fan. I went to a couple of tastings in Oldham about 15 years ago, then again in ‘12 and ‘23 in Scotland.
My friend Fay has set up Manchester Woman and Guys Having Fun meetup group (sic). It’s got a bit of everything: coffee meets, fitness, food, drink, movies. Keep an eye on it.
A heads-up for anyone visiting rooftop bar 20 Stories this summer: there’s a £10 door charge which ‘will apply from Saturday 23rd May until Monday 31st August (Bank Holiday) from 5pm onwards.’ I guess if you were the manager and it’s busy season, you may as well make the money.
Last night Meetup group Manchester Nightlife met in the lobby of Malmaison near the Town Hall and headed up to their second floor observatory bar Sora for some cocktails and mocktails. Good group. 4 of 9 showed up, plus 1 member who didn’t RSVP, but he’s a regular. Incredible décor, chilled house music, majestic views of the city and fine company from new and regular members.
After this a few of us took a look at the new Katie O’Brien’s on Peter St, formerly the Peaky Blinders bar. Good atmos, heaving with people, shame about the generic indie and pop music but a popular spot. I’ll be back there next week.
Scenes from Manchester's new Katie O'Brien's bar in Manchester
In other news, Brian O’Halloran – Dante off Clerks – liked my comment about the best films of ‘77, ‘87 and ‘94. Not sure why I picked Dumb and Dumber over Pulp Fiction. (As it happens, both directors – Tarantino and Farrelly – are Zionists anyway.)
In Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power, Law 19 is ‘Know Who You’re Dealing With.’
‘Deceive or outmanoeuvre some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lamb’s clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then – never offend or deceive the wrong person.’
In the book, Greene regales the true story of a businessman and cattle ranch owner named Norfleet. In 1920, a travelling con man named Joe Furey, backed by a gang of swindlers and crooks, passed through Fort Worth, Texas, and stumbled upon Norfleet. Furey ran the con on the rancher, convincing him to ‘invest’ in several schemes, only to reward Norfleet with envelopes stuffed with newspaper clippings.
There were many victims from Furey’s gang, most of whom cut their losses and chalked it up to experience.
Not our Norfleet, though. Oh no. He found Furey in Jacksonville Florida and ‘personally hauled him off to face justice.’ He went on to Denver to find other members of the gang, bankrupting himself and causing his own divorce in the process. It took 5 years for him to destroy the whole con ring.
Let’s leap forward a century, to near present day UK.
In July ’24, Labour ousted The Conservatives after 14 years in power. A lot of Labour voters, myself included, entered this new era with cautious optimism. At last, the Tories were gone. Can we tax the billionaires now? Can we hire more GPs and Social Workers as a result? Can we have a sufficient amount of grit in winter?
I’m writing this in April / May ’26, and the answer has been a resounding ‘no.’
But these aren’t the only reasons Prime Minister Kier Starmer has dirt – and in fact blood – figuratively on his hands. He’s still supporting Israel even after the UN described their assault as a ‘full-fledged genocide.’
He openly admitted on air, on LBC, that he believes Israel does have a right to kill children in Palestine.
Then he admits he has family in Israel. That’s what all this is about. Yes, the Israeli government may be blackmailing the UK Prime Minister because he has family that live there.
His position is, and always has been, untenable.
We know, of course, that this assault on Gaza did not begin at the Nova festival attack in 2023. It started in 1948 when David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. U.S. President Harry S. Truman recognized the new nation on the same day. There have been routine massacres of the Palestinian people ever since.
Regardless, immediately after the Nova attack – which I of course oppose – many people came out of the woodwork updating their Insta stories and grids, in support of Israel. Stories might disappear after 24 hrs, but my Omininotes don’t. I kept a list.
Did these people not realise that Israel has terrorising the Palestinians a similar way to how they treated the Israelis that 7th October, only on a routine basis, and for 75 years?
More to the point, do the people still supporting Israel not recognise that we will always remember that they chose to support a terrorist ethnocracy who were systematically wiping out a civilian population?
Many might. I won’t. Starmer himself will always carry that accusation, and that’s why the next vote will more than likely go to the Greens, giving Labour a solitary term in government – one in which they backed a genocide, jailed protesting grandmothers, impoverished disabled people and continued to allow billionaires to balloon their wealth while stripping our public services.
Labour is dead, and it’s because they underestimated the voting public.
More and more sky bars are opening in Manchester, offering cocktails and views of the city. You know me. I love a good cityscape. Come take a look at one of the latest views at Sora Sky Bar, inside the Malmaison, opposite Piccadilly Station. Manchester Nightlife are headed there Saturday.
A month to my sister’s wedding. Steadily getting fitter.
